My Most Potent Weapon Against Fear

Recently I was in church feeling all the feelings. If one more person said, "How are you handling this?" I was going to dissolve into a puddle of snot and tears.  My oldest graduated from High School that Saturday and all the love and attention I was getting was only making it worse.

I didn't even know why I was so upset.

But sitting there praying as the communion trays were passed I suddenly understood.

I was afraid. Afraid of time passing, of things changing, and losing the close relationship we've shared. I wanted to pretend it was all sadness, but in that moment of communion I knew the truth.  I was afraid.

It's not the first time (or the second) I've faced fear.  Or re-learned the hard lesson about trusting God with my unknowns.

Fear is my enemy.  Caution can be a wise friend but fear is a thief.  It steals today's happiness to be replaced with tomorrow's worries.  How can we fight this enemy?  What is my most potent weapon against that fear?

Swing over to Jerushaagen.com and find out!  I have a compete guest post there and I am excited to share with you how I fight fear!

Defeating the Wisdom of the World

Imagine Marcy. She’s been a single mom for the last few years.  Her little family of three lives month to month barely scraping by. Yesterday her boss came up and suggested she could get a promotion and a small raise if she will just leave out some details on this month’s report.  Not lie.  Just not share this particular information.  Marcy is torn.  She calls you asking for prayer and good advice.

What would you tell Marcy?  Where can you turn in the Bible for this kind of absolutely practical advice?  We know there is no, "Thou shalt not leave out important details." It is in situations just like this one where living in and living out the story of scripture helps.  Let me suggest a story from Jeremiah.

Up in Smoke

Recently as I was giving my servants their morning chores (in other words I was loading the dishwasher and starting the washing machine), I was listening to my audio Bible.  As usual, I was lost in listening.  Suddenly I gasped aloud in shock.  From the other room my surprised husband called out to find out what was wrong.  Here’s the story…

Defeating Fear!

Bats.

Witches.

Skeletons.

Halloween celebrates fear.

Terrorists.

Natural Disasters.

Nuclear War.

The media peddles fear.

What are Christians supposed to do?

Too Stupid to be Afraid

My dad has long said that I was "too stupid to be afraid."  I don't think this is an insult.  I suspect grudging admiration.  He is every bit as adventuresome as me.  And he doesn't really think I'm dumb.  It's just that a certain amount of fear is a smart response to a dangerous situation. 

Who do you think you are dealing with?

Belshazzar threw a party with a thousand guests.  In a bid to impress the nobles, because he was drunk, or simply because the bouquet of the wine demanded superior vessels, he called for the temple ware. Years before when the aging Daniel was a boy, Nebuchadnezzar had looted God's temple when he sacked the city of Jerusalem.  So in a dusty storehouse somewhere the holy vessels of gold and silver sat waiting.  When these sacred artifacts were brought forth and filled with wine, Belshazzar raise his glass and praised the "gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone."

What on earth did he think he was doing?

The Watchman

Of all the fears and worries of an evangelist I don’t know that there is any more discouraging than the fear of failure. Young evangelists worry, not without reason that in their inexperience they may fail.  What if I mess this up?  What if I say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, and make it worse? Drive people away from God? Wrong motives, wrong methods, wrong message, these are real and powerful concerns. However, if this fear is so paralyzing that she never reaches out, the battle has already been lost.

The experienced evangelist, I am afraid, has a more subtle and powerful fear. What if I do the best I can, if I pour out everything I’ve got, and no one listens. Have I failed God?  She doesn’t fear that someday someone will reject her.  She’s already been there. She has tasted the bitterness of investing hours of loving concern, Bible study and her own physical resources into a person only to have them reject her and God.  Her fear doesn’t paralyze her; it haunts her.  Will she shout and shout and no one listen?

But What If I Fail?

Like Helene, I don’t live in fear of external things.  (Yes, if a spider lands on me, I will run and scream like a little girl, but I can avoid the eight legged freaks for the most part.)  I teach a women’s class at a prison once a week, and I never worry about being attacked or even called names.  For one thing, there are guards watching our every move, for another I rely on God’s protection when I’m doing His work.  

9 Christian Strategies for Helping Kids Overcome Fear

The shadows on the wall as they try to sleep; hurricanes, earthquakes and shootings on the news; bullies at school; learning to read a bike and don't forget Halloween.  If you're a kid, life is scary.

I’ve seen all kinds of parenting posts about how to comfort kids and help them overcome their fears.   None of them were terrible.  Well, ok, I found the ones that suggested lying to your kids pretty horrifying.  But it seems to me that Christian parents have a whole different playbook for solving these kinds of problems. 

I Am Not Afraid.

I’m not afraid.  

I am not afraid of thunderstorms, heights, dogs, or mice.  They are little things that have been known to startle me (barking dogs and thunderstorms) or make me mad (Rodents of all kinds infuriate me! Tiny little home invaders!).  To say that I am afraid of them would be an exaggeration.  

I am not afraid of ISIS or any terrorist domestic or foreign.  They can beware of me. They have guns; I have prayer. They steal life - precious to me because it represents the days I have here to serve my King and his people.  Yet if they steal it, they have only moved the place I am praying from earth to under the heavenly altar (Revelation 6:9-11). 

5 Ways to Combat Sinful Anxiety

There are two kinds of anxiety.  There’s the chemical imbalance kind; the kind that is medical, needs a doctor’s care and possibly some kind of medication.  I make no claims to know anything about that kind of anxiety, nor would I presume to tell someone who suffers from it what they should or should not do. The kind of anxiety I have is different.  It is the kind that worries about things I can’t change, fears failure, and dwells on “what ifs” that may never happen. This anxiety could be considered more or less serious, depending on how you look at it.  On the one hand, it is sin, and that makes it a grave problem. Jesus told us not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34), so when I do, I am disobeying him.  On the other hand, sin has a solution.  Not only has Jesus’s blood cleansed me, but the Bible has given me ways to deal with my irrational (and even rational) fears.  Here are some ways that we as women can handle our sinful anxieties before they become a snare to us.

Drop that Rock and Run

Taking walks with my three year old could be considered interval training.  Sometimes she'll run delightedly from one mailbox to another, looking for spiderwebs, while I power walk or even jog to keep up.  Then she'll stop for several minutes to examine a leaf she's found.  Run, walk, stop, walk, stop, run; it may not be cardio, but it's certainly fun!

Pew Putrefaction

"I don't want to wait till I'm 40!  I don't want to lose my sense of adventure, my passion, my enthusiasm for life!" she wailed.  

I laughed.  I know; I'm bad. Counseling my students as they face the inevitable growing pains is one of the ways I serve.  I ought to be able to keep a straight face by now.

More Blessed

Of all the spiritual disciplines, I think giving is the one we like to hear about least.   A preacher can do all the sermons he wants about Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, and we all nod our heads.  However, if he dares to get up and do a lesson on giving, it seems most of his audience will be wondering what building project is in the works or perhaps which stingy person he is aiming to reach.  I have been guilty of this very thing.  When my preacher starts talking about giving, I look at the wall where our budget and weekly contribution numbers are posted.  We must have fallen behind, right? What I've forgotten is that just like the other spiritual disciplines, giving is for my benefit and growth.  

Betrayed

I recently read an article on homeschooling that I thought was a must-read for all Christian parents. Although the article dealt with some of the weaknesses of the homeschooling model, it took a breathtakingly honest look at what it means to be a Christian parent. 

A Sword Through The Heart

The day my oldest daughter was born I couldn't help thinking of Mary.  Here I was in July, in an air-conditioned hospital room, hopped up on pain killers, following a C-section, and I am thinking about nativity scenes.  Weird, I know.  But I bet I am not the only Christian mom who looked at her own baby and thought of the mother of that holy baby. Mary was haunting my thoughts.

A Grim Queen

Once upon a time, there was an evil queen who craved power.  She was content to be the power behind the throne for a while, directing her husband the king to do evil.  As a result of her wicked deeds, most of her children were carried off to a distant land, and her husband died of a wasting sickness.  She never grieved them but continued to manage affairs when her last remaining son had the throne.  As soon as she found out her son was dead, she killed as many of her grandchildren she could find and took the throne for herself.  This story sounds like one of the Brothers Grimm more twisted tales, the kind we skip in our bedtime story routine.  Unfortunately, this horrible narrative instead chronicles one of the darker times in the history of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 8:16-29, 11:1-21; 2 Chronicles 21-23).

Gods and Kings: A Book Review

"MOLECH ... MOLECH ... MOLECH!"
Suddenly the wall of soldiers parted, and Hezekiah got his first glimpse of Molech.  He knew he wasn't dreaming. He knew the monster was real because he never could have imagined anything so horrible.  Molech stared down at him from a throne of brass as the fire in the pit beneath the hollow statue blazed with a loud roar.  Tongues of flame licked around the edges of his open mouth. His arms reached out as if waiting to be filled, forming a steep incline that ended in his open, waiting mouth. ... Hezekiah watched in horror as the man tossed his brother into the monster's waiting arms.  Eliab rolled down the incline toward the open mouth, clawing at the brazen arms to try to stop his fall, but the metal was hot and polished smooth.  He couldn't hold on.  Eliab's pitiful screams wailed above the  roar of the flames and the pounding drums, even after he had fallen over the rim and Molech had devoured him. (Austin, Lynn. Gods and Kings: Chronicles of the Kings #1, p 14-15.).  

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Halloween is just around the corner.  I don't need to turn to costumed children or horror movies to feel a chill of fear.  Media doomsayers, gunmen shooting up movie theaters or fanatics causing buildings to crumble-they shake us all.  We are tempted to think that terror is a modern phenomenon.  This week we'll be covering the two most terrifying ancient women we could think of-Jezebel and Athaliah. 

Faith and Works

The last time you heard a sermon on faith and works, did it mention Rahab the harlot? No? Why not? She's the perfect example! In fact, Rahab is mentioned three times in the New Testament.  Once as an ancestress of Jesus and twice in connection to the idea of faith and works (Matthew 1:5, Hebrews 11:31, and James 2:25).  Her example is one of the clearest illustrations of the connection between what we believe and what we do in all of the Bible.